Re: How to inform the linker not to produce any data for a .bsssection?

[Dave Murphy <wintermute2k4@ntlworld.com>]

Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> This is necessary alignment.  If you don't want .bss to take up space
> in the file, do not put allocated sections after it.
>   

Is there any way to change that behavior without causing problems?

I'm trying to regain a little extra memory for the heap on a newlib 
based toolchain where the device binary starts in RAM. It's an arm946 
with 48k of tcm.

I've tried placing .itcm & .dtcm sections after the .bss section which 
causes it to consume space in the binary so I tried setting the VMA for 
the bss to the LMA for the first preceeding section, like this

    __dtcm_lma = . ;

    .dtcm __dtcm_start : AT (__dtcm_lma)
    {
        *(.dtcm)
        *(.dtcm.*)
        . = ALIGN(4);
        __dtcm_end = ABSOLUTE(.);
    } >dtcm = 0xff


    __itcm_lma = __dtcm_lma + SIZEOF(.dtcm);

    .itcm __itcm_start : AT (__itcm_lma)
    {
        *(.itcm)
        *itcm.*(.text)
        . = ALIGN(4);
        __itcm_end = ABSOLUTE(.);
    } >itcm = 0xff
   
    .sbss __dtcm_end :
    {
        __sbss_start = ABSOLUTE(.);
        __sbss_start__ = ABSOLUTE(.);
        *(.sbss)
        . = ALIGN(4);    /* REQUIRED. LD is flaky without it. */
        __sbss_end = ABSOLUTE(.);
    } >dtcm
   

   
    __bss_lma = __itcm_lma + SIZEOF(.itcm) ;
    __appended_data = __itcm_lma + SIZEOF(.itcm) ;
    .bss __bss_lma : AT (__dtcm_lma)
    {
        __bss_start = ABSOLUTE(.);
        __bss_start__ = ABSOLUTE(.);
        *(.dynbss)
        *(.gnu.linkonce.b*)
        *(.bss*)
        *(COMMON)
        . = ALIGN(4);    /* REQUIRED. LD is flaky without it. */
        __bss_end = ABSOLUTE(.) ;
        __bss_end__ = __bss_end ;
    } >ewram


    _end = . ;
    __end__ = . ;
    PROVIDE (end = _end);

ld errored with "section .bss [0200c5b8 -> 0200c647] overlaps section 
.itcm [0200c5b8 -> 0200c747]" so I tried placing .bss first & setting 
the LMA of the following section to the bss segment. That got me the 
opposite error.

    __dtcm_lma = . ;
  __bss_start = .;
  __bss_start__ = .;
  .bss            :
  {
   *(.dynbss)
   *(.bss .bss.* .gnu.linkonce.b.*)
   *(COMMON)
   /* Align here to ensure that the .bss section occupies space up to
      _end.  Align after .bss to ensure correct alignment even if the
      .bss section disappears because there are no input sections.
      FIXME: Why do we need it? When there is no .bss section, we don't
      pad the .data section.  */
   . = ALIGN(. != 0 ? 32 / 8 : 1);
  } >ewram
  __bss_end = . ; __bss_end__ = . ;
    _end = . ;
    __end__ = . ;


    .dtcm __dtcm_start : AT (__dtcm_lma)
    {
        *(.dtcm)
        *(.dtcm.*)
        . = ALIGN(4);
        __dtcm_end = ABSOLUTE(.);
    } >dtcm


    __itcm_lma = __dtcm_lma + SIZEOF(.dtcm);

    .itcm __itcm_start : AT (__itcm_lma)
    {
        *(.itcm)
        *itcm.*(.text)
        . = ALIGN(4);
        __itcm_end = ABSOLUTE(.);
    } >itcm

Dave